Friday, August 7, 2009

Three Ukuleles...Active Ageing Carnival June 2009

About 10 minutes or so after we started there was a request which came from the rear of the crowd. I peered closely to see some familiar faces of Gongshang Primary School parents with their kids. Wonderful!Their children are in the open scout troop of the school which is entirely run by the parents themselves, one of the only few such units managed in such a successful manner.The song requested for was a very old local scout campfire song titled "Ah Chong Sok"...about a chee cheong fun seller.Then I spotted Darren Goh who is a present cub-scout and who was also in my Ukulele class in 2007 and 2008. Clickhere to read about those uke classes. Darren has been one of my most avid ukulele fan among many others. His ukulele has my signature on it. I signalled for him to come forward on stage and introduced him to one and all.Between Richard and I, we had 4 ukuleles there. So, we passed him one and told him to join us...as a trio.I had taught Darren quite a few more chords than the others as he showed a genuine passion for the ukulele.So, he was able to follow and strum along with us without much problem.Ah Chong Sok is a really cute and funny song and the crowd enjoyed it.

Another really good one is the old English sea shanty " Drunken Sailor".

Those who have heard my rendition of this whether on guitar or ukulele never fail to request for it. So, that was requested for and played and sung the way it should be sung...with some cockney accent when singing the word " early" ( pronounced in cockney as er-lie ).

I could see it went down very well with the crowd.

We had much fun doing all the songs and entertaining the many requests. There were people watching us from the upper floors as you can see in the background.

For 11 year old Darren, this must have been a first of sorts for him. How many kids in Singapore get this kind of exposure to appear impromptu and play the ukulele in public at an official event?

Well done Darren. Well done parents.

I hope this will spur you to continue on your ukulele learning journey.